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on the evening of august 30th, as autumn deepened, singer daolang realized his childhood dream on the banks of the tuojiang river in zizhong, sichuan.

an online concert on video account - "where mountain songs are played" successfully triggered a screen-sweeping trend on the night of august 30, attracting a total of more than 53 million online views and receiving more than 600 million likes.

behind one set of enviable data after another, #daolang's hometown zizhong# quickly became a hot search. zizhong, sichuan, a small county that was not well known to the public before, was seen by more people because of a concert.

from last year to now, from the sudden popularity of zibo, shandong, to harbin's overnight popularity, to the "my altay" which set off a tourism boom in xinjiang, and shanxi riding on the popularity of "black myth: wukong"... rushing to a city for a kind of food, a performance, a drama or a game, and connecting cities with plane tickets and tickets is becoming a new travel experience for young people today, and also a new code for the cultural tourism market.

image source: jinzhong library

chengdu released data showing that in the first half of this year, sichuan held 74 large-scale commercial performances with more than 5,000 spectators, driving comprehensive consumption of more than 6.5 billion yuan. among them, chengdu held more than 2,400 commercial music performances in the first half of the year, with box office revenue of about 600 million yuan; various large-scale concerts and music festivals drove surrounding consumption of more than 2.5 billion yuan.

behind daolang's online concert "where mountain songs rise", its exclusive title sponsor, guizhou xijiu·zhijiao liquor, has also entered the field of vision of more fans and audiences. in recent years, title sponsorship of concerts has become a "standard" for many wine companies to promote sales. many wine companies such as yanghe, wuliangye, and luzhou laojiao have crowded into the ranks of concert sponsors, setting off a new round of "drinking and singing" craze.

"concert +" is becoming a new trend to boost economic flow. while concerts drive consumption in transportation, accommodation, catering, tourism and other fields, they also generate business opportunities. faced with the "huge wealth" behind the popular concerts, who can hold the code to this flow for a long time, including urban cultural tourism and wine companies?

a concert and a person

more than 3 hours and 39 songs

daolang is called "singer, poet, thinker" by his fans

"when i was a child, i would play the piano and treat the river as the audience, and fantasize about holding a concert at my doorstep. i didn't expect that this dream would come true today." on the evening of august 30, daolang sang his own online concert on the banks of the tuojiang river in his hometown of zizhong, sichuan. only one hour after the live broadcast of the concert started, it attracted more than 30 million viewers.

in the end, this sincere concert ended with over 53 million views, 25 million popularity points, and 600 million likes. this series of data not only surpassed cui jian's concert on wechat video account that year, but also tied jay chou's online concert record.

daolang said, "the place where folk songs are played" means "the place where we live." this is daolang's return to the concert stage after twelve years.

in december last year, daolang released a video saying that he would temporarily stop updating social media for a year, two or three years. next, he has three more albums planned, which will require a lot of time to do field work, accumulate and think. speaking of concerts, he emphasized that from 2013 to 2023, he never instructed any unit or individual to prepare or produce his concerts, nor did he have any motivation to prepare concerts.

on the evening of august 30, daolang sang for 3.5 hours. although it was an online concert, the lighting and scenery were very carefully designed. at the beginning of the performance, accompanied by the music of "dreams are more real", daolang walked from darkness to the junction of light and darkness, and also pulled the audience into the junction of fantasy and reality.

then, 39 songs were played, including well-known classics such as "wolf in sheep's clothing", "the first snow of 2002", and "love song of the west sea", as well as new works such as "rakshasa sea city" and "flower fairy" that have been popular in recent years. when daolang held up an umbrella and sang "resurrection umbrella", it started to rain. daolang chatted with the audience while performing the concert... no nonsense, no affectation, no sensationalism...

image source: screenshot of online concert

some netizens commented that daolang's songs are like tang poetry, song lyrics, yuan opera, philosophical thoughts, zen, and modern prose poems, but not like pop songs. they have diverse styles, and the lyrics are strong and profound, unique and subtle, forming their own system. therefore, he is also called "dao shen" by his fans.

"he is not just a singer, he is also a poet, a thinker and a philosopher!" a senior fan exclaimed after daolang's concert.

onea concert and a city

drone, pick-up and drop-off, free admission

the entertainment economy is booming

in the past two years, the market has witnessed a new model of combining culture and tourism: "a drama makes a city popular" has become the norm. "man jiang hong" made taiyuan, shanxi a popular check-in place, "kuang bi" made jiangmen, guangdong popular, and "where the wind goes" made dali, yunnan popular again. now, this phenomenon has expanded to the field of concerts, and people go to a city because of a drama or a concert.

the success of daolang's online concert provided an excellent opportunity for zizhong county. on the day of the concert, the baidu index of "zizhong" increased by 305% compared with the 29th, the wechat index increased by 77.66% day-on-day, and the video number source increased by 108.98% day-on-day.

image source: screenshot from a third-party platform

"daolang is a local and also a star, so there will definitely be a star agglomeration effect." a person in charge of a county's cultural and tourism bureau who has been deeply involved in the cultural and tourism industry for many years told the "daily economic news" reporter that in recent years, concerts have played a major role in driving urban culture and tourism, and "the long-tail effect of daolang's online concert will be more obvious in the later stage."

"traffic has certainly played a very important role in local culture and tourism, but whether this huge traffic can be handled may not just be the responsibility of the director of the culture and tourism bureau, but a consideration at a larger level." bu xiting, deputy director of the academic committee of the beijing jinghe culture and tourism development research institute, once publicly stated, "traffic from internet celebrities can indeed promote the development of a city, but from another perspective, it may only be a stage."

according to data from the china performing arts association, the total number of audiences nationwide in the first quarter of 2024 reached 38.8699 million, an increase of 77.88% over the same period in 2023; box office revenue was 10.8 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 116.87% over 2023. whenever a city holds a concert, the consumption of surrounding hotels, restaurants, transportation and shopping also heats up. for example, in september last year, jay chou's four-day concert in tianjin attracted 185,000 audiences and generated a total comprehensive consumption of more than 3 billion yuan.

the booming offline performance market has made the "performing arts economy" a new highlight of urban cultural tourism consumption. "traveling with concerts" has gradually become a new travel trend for many people. many cities hope to attract tourists through performances and launch various peripheral activities to promote consumption, striving to retain the hearts of fans.

as traffic economy becomes an important economic form in today's society, how to convert online popularity into offline popularity and economic benefits has become a challenge faced by many local governments.

a concert and a wine company

sponsoring concerts

"singing to the wine" becomes a new way of marketing liquor

faced with the huge traffic, major wine companies have also "lowered their status" and squeezed into concerts, trying to embrace young people and set off a new round of "drinking and singing" craze.

behind daolang’s online concert “where mountain songs are ringing”, guizhou xijiu·zhijiao liquor has also entered the vision of more fans and audiences.

zhijiao liquor is the exclusive title sponsor of daolang's concert and is affiliated to xijiu group. it is worth noting that this is not the first time that xijiu has sponsored a concert. previously, xijiu also sponsored offline concerts of luo dayou, li ronghao and others.

image source: screenshot of online concert

in fact, according to incomplete statistics from a reporter from the "daily economic news", since the concert boom in 2023, more than 20 well-known liquor brands have sponsored more than 100 concerts. langjiu, gujing gongjiu, wuliangye, jin shiyuan, yanghe shares, hengshui laobai gan, daohuaxiang liquor, changan sauce liquor and others have joined the battle for concerts.

this summer, luzhou laojiao·guojiao 1573 "glory ceremony" star concert, guoyuan v3·hacken lee tour concert, yanghe "dream blue m6+andy lau" tour concert, etc. have frequently become popular with "wine + music". in terms of gameplay, buying wine and giving away tickets has also become the main way for wine companies to increase the stakes of concerts. for example, at jolin tsai's changzhou concert sponsored by shiyuan, a distributor launched an activity of buying 2 boxes of 52-degree guoyuan and giving away a 890-yuan grandstand ticket; in july this year, yanghe, as the full title sponsor of andy lau's current tour, launched activities such as buying wine and giving away tickets for the performances in 8 cities.

image source: screenshot of online concert

in addition to title sponsorship, some wine companies have also personally held concerts. this summer, congtai wine stars concert, the "fate of this life and fate of the country" stars concert, and jiannanchun "qixi night" stars concert have been held one after another, trying to use the concert economy to kick off a new round of marketing wars.

"the reason behind the rush of wine companies to sponsor concerts is to promote the rejuvenation of their brands." zhu danpeng, an industry expert who has been deeply involved in the food and beverage industry for many years, frankly said that for wine companies, although the explicit benefits of sponsoring title concerts are not too large, the implicit value is huge, and it is a forward-looking consideration and layout.

at present, chinese liquor has entered a new era of stock competition. under the increasingly "involution", liquor companies facing difficulties in destocking and increasing volume need to "do market in the off-season and grab sales in the peak season". sponsoring or naming a concert that is packed with fans and hard to get tickets can not only enhance brand exposure and brand awareness, but also has the potential to leverage sales of hundreds of millions of yuan.

in the view of zhang yi, ceo and chief analyst of imedia consulting, it is undeniable that in the short term, the concert economy can awaken consumers and drive brand sales growth; but in the long run, the competition in the liquor industry is essentially a competition for channels and brands. how to break through is an important issue for current liquor companies.

"on the one hand, for the new generation of young consumer groups (those born in the 1990s and 2000s), liquor companies need to transform and diversify, break the previous consumers' inherent impression of liquor, and expand the consumer group; on the other hand, for the original main consumer groups (those born in the 1970s and 1980s), liquor companies need to leverage cultural scenes to further awaken their consumption power." zhang yi said frankly.

he observed that more and more concerts sponsored by liquor are now trending towards third- and fourth-tier cities, because in the sinking market, more obvious regional market effects, social interaction among acquaintances, and more practical liquor consumption scenarios can accelerate the expansion of brand awareness, and liquor has greater opportunities in the sinking market.

on august 31, daolang officially announced his offline concert tour on the video account, including chengdu, guangzhou, nanjing, and macau. the chengdu stop is reported to be held at the chengdu phoenix mountain sports park comprehensive gymnasium, and the performance dates are september 21 and 22. next, which cities, markets, and companies will be able to catch this wave of traffic?

daily economic news